Colorado Avalanche / NHL

Avalanche's Joe Sakic inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame

On Oct. 23, 1973, 4-year-old Joseph Steven Sakic sat for the first time in the stands of an NHL game, between the Vancouver Canucks and Atlanta Flames at the Pacific Coliseum. He sat with his father, Marijan, and told him, "I want to be a hockey player."

Only, he didn't say it in English. It was in the tongue of his parents' native Croatia.

Zelim biti hokejas.

Thirty nine years later, with Marijan and his wife, Slavica, sitting in the stands of the Esso Theater at the Hockey Hall of Fame, Sakic told his parents something else, this time in English.

Thank you.

"Today I stand here, feeling very blessed," Sakic said Monday night after being inducted into the Hall of Fame. "I know I couldn't have done this without you guys. I know it wasn't always easy for you. You guys always found a way to help get me what I needed. I can't thank you enough for that."

On a night when Adam Oates, Pavel Bure and Mats Sundin also were inducted, Sakic was the third player introduced to a crowd that included Sakic's parents, his wife and three children, Avalanche president Pierre Lacroix, former Quebec Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut and former teammates Adam Foote, Michel Goulet and Ray Bourque.

"I played with so many great players. If I had to thank them, I'd be here all night," Sakic said. "I owe so many people who helped me get here. I was so proud to wear the Avalanche jersey, and so happy to still be a part of the organization, and hopefully we can bring another Stanley Cup to Denver."

After the ceremony, players came down an escalator as bagpipes played. A private reception followed immediately.

"This whole day, this whole weekend, was unbelievable," Sakic said. "It was more than I expected. I didn't realize how big and special this would seem, I guess. It's humbling."

In a taped video before Sakic took the stage, former Avs goalie Patrick Roy talked about why his former teammate was so deserving.

"I knew he was good when I came to Colorado, but I never knew how good and how hard he worked," Roy said. "Every night, we had no doubt he was ready to play. He was a very unselfish player, but he was our leader. When Joe passed the Cup to Ray (in 2001), it's the perfect picture of how he was."

Roy said, partially because of Sakic, Colorado was his first choice of a team to be traded to when the Montreal Canadiens put him on the block in 1995.

Sakic came into the NHL as a touted scorer but constantly kept working at his game. He tried to take 500 wrist shots every day during or after practice, and he worked hard to be a better defensive player.

"That's why he got better and won championships," former Avs teammate Theo Fleury said. "He could have just coasted and been a good scorer in the league, but he was never satisfied with just that. Once he got some better players to play with too, he led by example. He didn't pout because he wasn't getting more time on the power play or things like that, once they got a guy like Peter Forsberg. He wanted to win most of all, and he made those guys better."

Lacroix, whose moves helped bring the better players to help Sakic win Stanley Cups, called the 43-year-old Sakic "a tremendous captain, the leader of our team for every year I was (general manager)."

Sakic, the ninth-leading scorer in NHL history and the top scorer in Avalanche history, spoke for about five minutes. He didn't shed any tears, but he was emotional nonetheless.

"To all the fans in Colorado and Quebec, thank you," he said.

Proving that he is trilingual, at least to some extent, Sakic added, "And for Quebec, merci beaucoup."

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